UN Sahara envoy faces crossroads as global support coalesces around Morocco’s autonomy plan

As the UN Security Council prepares to review the mandate of its Western Sahara mission (MINURSO), pressure is mounting on UN Envoy Staffan de Mistura to realign his efforts with the growing international consensus favoring Morocco’s autonomy plan.

The recent meeting between de Mistura and US Senior Advisor Massad Boulos in New York marked a pivotal moment as Washington reaffirmed that “genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only feasible solution.”

This message from the Trump administration was a strategic directive. Boulos’s statement is also a rebuke of Algeria and the Polisario Front. It underscored the urgency for the UN to abandon outdated frameworks and focus on negotiating the autonomy plan.

The US position, echoed by France, the UK, Spain, Portugal, and most Arab countries and a growing number of African nations, leaves Algeria increasingly isolated.

Realigning the mission of the UN towards facilitating negotiations on the basis of the autonomy plan is also a chance for De Mistura to restore his credibility, which has taken a hit following his failed attempt to float a partition proposal that would have split the Sahara territory.

Morocco called de Mistura’s heated up and failed proposal as a “non-starter” and reaffirmed that its sovereignty over the Sahara is non-negotiable.

Meanwhile, MINURSO is facing unprecedented scrutiny. Critics within the Trump administration and conservative think tanks have called for its abolition or radical reform. Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute argued that MINURSO has become a “failed peacekeeping mission” that perpetuates conflict rather than resolving it.

Rubin’s critique goes further, accusing the UN of inflating the legitimacy of the Polisario Front and enabling Algeria’s strategy of holding Sahrawi refugees hostage in the Tindouf camps.

“Subsidizing MINURSO represents a betrayal of the Abraham Accords,” he wrote, urging Congress and the Trump administration to cut funding and demand accountability.

As the Security Council prepares to vote on MINURSO’s renewal in October, the stakes are high. De Mistura must now decide whether to continue pursuing dead-end proposals or embrace the autonomy plan that has garnered global support. The UN’s credibility in Western Sahara may depend on its willingness to adapt to the new geopolitical reality.